As 2009 comes to a close, we know already that the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association will be fighting three recently-introduced bills that are intended to close more records, all of which were reported from their original committees this week.
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York County President Judge Richard K. Renn ruled Thursday the county is in compliance with the commonwealth's Right-To-Know law when it refuses to release addresses in emergency time response logs. Read More…

Terry Mutchler, executive director of the state Office of Open Records, has a quick response when asked how things are going. " 'Busy' is the short answer," Ms. Mutchler said last week. "We're just overwhelmed."

Ms. Mutchler and her nine-member staff routinely work 12-hour days or longer to keep pace with a flood of paperwork.

To date, they have processed 1,006 appeals, conducted 300 training sessions around the state on the new Right-to-Know Law and fielded more than 5,000 e-mail and telephone inquiries. Read More…

Last month, when the Commonwealth Court issued its first published opinion addressing Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law, it shone a bright light on a long-standing issue: the inherent tension between the public's right to access government records and a person's interest in the privacy of information that the government possesses about him. The Commonwealth Court's recent opinion, Pennsylvania State Education Association v. Commonwealth, further muddles the privacy question and, unless corrected, stands to cause an array of additional problems. Read More…

The Office of Open Records will issue no final determinations ordering the release of public employee home addresses, pending resolution of a petition made by the Pennsylvania State Education Association by the Commonwealth Court . Read More…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A state appellate court judge has ordered a temporary halt to releasing school district employees' home addresses listed on records requests made under Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law. Read More…

The union representing most public school employees in Pennsylvania yesterday won a temporary injunction in Commonwealth Court to shield the home addresses of all public-school employees under the new open-records law. Read More…

God help us when government tries to protect us. House Bill 1667 would amend Pennsylvania's right-to-know law to exclude date of birth as information of public record. Read More…

In an order dated July 28, 2009, Commonwealth Court Senior Judge Rochelle S. Friedman granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the release of home addresses of public school employees. Read More…